This invention relates to energy in general and more particularly to an improved facility for generating useable energy by conversion of solar energy.
Installations comprising at least one concave mirror and at least one energy collector, by which reflected sun rays can be intercepted and converted into technically useable energy which can be supplied to at least one consumer are known.
In the conversion of solar energy into technically useable energy, the main problem is the low energy density of solar radiation. It necessitates very large intercept surfaces. To solve this problem, there is in preparation by the German Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, according to newspaper reports, a facility which includes a multiplicity of concave mirrors of, for instance, 4 meters diameter, in which the solar energy is to be collected and fed with low losses to a power plant center. This project, as well as other apparatus of this type which are equipped with batteries of plane mirrors, can be technically realized only at great cost, however, because the concave mirrors must be made to follow the sun's position. The main disadvantage of these plants, however, is the large number (thousands) of relatively small concave mirrors required, which necessitates an equal number of small miniature power plants (at every mirror focus). The energy of several square meters, while focussed, is nevertheless distributed over a large area. The cleaning, repairing and adjusting of the concave mirrors would, in addition, make the plant uneconomical.